The Group of Four

Asahi immediately looked at me and turned his head sideways.

‘You are… Sasaki? Correct?’

‘Yeah. Yuina Sasaki.’

‘Cool, cool, and you are… Miura? Correct?

‘Miura Kyouka, yup.’

‘Okay, nice, nice, nice…’

He leaned over to me again:

‘By the way, are you in your popular phase? I mean, I expected it sooner rather than later, but really, it’s happening now? What gi –’

I slapped him across the face with my left hand again.

‘Do you ever shut up?’

I turned to the girls again and rolled my eyes, before continuing:

‘Sorry about Asahi, he’s a bit of a pain… as y’all can probably tell. I’m good to pair up though; not like anyone else is gonna want to pair up with me anyway.’

‘There’s valid reason for that though, Tsukkun.’

‘Yeah, yeah, I know, I know. That’ll change… eventually.’

She smiled at me, before Miura interjected:

‘Pardon my interruption, but might I ask, you’re Tsuyoshi Yokoyama, correct?’

‘Yeah, that’s what it says on the student card at least.’

‘So, I heard you and Sasaki met last Thursday, right?’

‘Well, I guess. Bumped into her at work, had trouble with shoplifters and then the weather, so I guess we bonded over that time?’

‘Ah, interesting, interesting, that’s the essence of what Sasaki told me before. I take it you’re also the leader of some delinquent group? Or something like that?’

‘That’s what I do.’

‘Interesting once again. I heard that one was your number two as well.’

She pointed at Asahi who shrugged his shoulders and looked over to me before exclaiming:

‘Busted! Caught me red-handed!’

She ignored him and then turned back to me.

‘I wouldn’t have expected him of all people to be your choice as number two. Personally, I can understand that you’d be pretty ruthless, but him? What’s he gonna do?’

‘Hey! I can hear you, y’know?’

She then turned to him.

‘By the way – just letting you know – if these two get all lovey-dovey, don’t expect me to turn and go out with you just so that everything can work out the way it would in a movie or sitcom or whatever.’

She’s pretty damn straightforward, I’ll give her that much. Kisasa blushed slightly, then began laughing at what Miura had just said – I simply covered my mouth with my hand, trying to conceal any visible evidence of embarrassment.

‘Hey, what gives? You know I have a girlfriend anyway, right?’

Miura looked at Kisasa, visibly confused.

‘You never mentioned this!’

‘I forgot! It’s an easily forgettable portion of the story!’

Asahi looked confused.

‘So you’re saying that I’m an easily forgettable portion of a story? What the hell!’

I’m going to be working with an absolute band of idiots.

When I’m the most normal member of a group, there’s gonna be problems – not just one, many of them. See, Asahi’s fine when it’s just him and I working together cause I’m able to wrangle him whenever necessary, but the second anyone else joins, I’m immediately outnumbered, and he can go buck wild. Now, I’m outnumbered by two. Fantastic.

‘Okay, okay. Can we actually pick our topic? Seems like we’re the last ones to pick because of all of your commotion.’

‘Oh, look at you Tsukkun, taking some action for the group. I like it! Wipes the drear right off of you and suits you much better!’

‘Yeah Tsu, what’s this new personality? She change your life or something?’

I looked at Asahi again, visibly agitated, to which he immediately smirked.

‘I should probably go grab our topic… yeah, I’ll go do it!’

He lept out of his seat and headed towards the front of the class to receive a topic that had been preselected by Professor Lincoln. He came back almost instantly and handed us the piece of paper which he’d picked.

The Great… Gatsby?

I don’t read much, so I had no clue what this novel was even about. As I looked up, I thought I wouldn’t be alone, but all of Asahi, Miura, and Kisasa nodded to one another in agreement, with Miura putting her hand on the desk and speaking up:

‘So, we’ve all read it, correct?’

‘Uh, no? You guys all have?’

From beside me, Asahi piped up:

‘Uh yeah? It’s one of the more famous English translations that we have here, and it’s pretty easy to understand too. How haven’t you read this?’

I looked at him in disbelief.

‘When’d you read this? At least for them I can somewhat understand, but when did you have the willingness or obligation to read an English novel? What the hell do you do in your spare time man?’

‘What? I love reading. I read this a couple of years ago, it’s a really sad tale y’know? You should give it a gander.’

Kisasa looked up at him.

‘Did you just say, a “gander”? What’s wrong with you?’

‘Ignore him. He thinks he sounds smart saying things like that, but he just sounds like an idiot.’

‘Well, actually Tsukkun, I’d argue you’re just as much of an idiot if you haven’t read Gatsby as yet… it’s such a staple as a translated work!’

I pinched my eyes shut.

‘Okay, I’m an idiot too then, sure, sure. If all of you have read it, do I really need to bother? I can just do the –’

Kisasa interjected:

‘Nope! Rejected! You’re not freeloading on this!’

‘I’m not gonna freeload. I’ll actually do what I need to do, don’t stress. But you guys can tackle the novel, and I can do all of the important shit, like the history, background, and whatever else. Kill two birds with one stone, y’know?’

‘As much as I’m in as much awe as these other two that you haven’t read this yet, you don’t make a bad proposition. Pretty smart, aren’t ya Yokoyama?’

‘Yeah, I have to be efficient in my line of work, y’know?’

Asahi piped in again:

‘I guess that sorts it then, you’ll do all the boring historical stuff and we’ll actually make the relevant connections between your boring work and the story itself. I didn’t want to get stuck doing the boring shit but you’ve volunteered yourself for it, so how could a man like me ever decline such a polite offer?’

‘Anyway, Kisasa, Miura, if I don’t come to class again, I’ll still make sure to get my part done, alright?’

In my seventeen years of life, and my nearly twelve of knowing Asahi, I’ve learned that sometimes it’s best to ignore him.

‘Who said you’re skipping class Tsukkun?’

‘I did. I cannot be bothered to show up everyday, that’s for sure. Maybe once in a while… maybe.

‘But we’ve gotta work together on this!’

‘We really don’t – I can do my part, and you guys all do yours and we collaborate on some webapp – I don’t know what’s out there but there’s gotta be some form of Messenger or something that we can use, right?’

‘Sasaki’s right. I don’t know if that’ll work. The presentation’s gotta flow and it won’t work if we’re all doing things independently.’

I looked over at Asahi.

‘Don’t look at me after you just ignored me. I’m on their side.’

I shook my head and sighed.

‘Fine. This week only, I’ll come in for first period so we can get things done, then I’ll head out.’

Miura looked at me:

‘Busy, are we?’

‘Always am. It’s not like I’m sitting on my ass when I skip.’

‘That’s a complete and utter lie – I literally came to your place two weeks ago to hand you notes during lunch and – ’

I chopped at Asahi’s side, to which he winced. Miura laughed at us, while Kisasa looked on.

‘You wondering about something Kisasa? You look like you’re deep in thought.’

‘Oh, nothing, nothing at –’

Just as she was finishing up her thought, the bell rang out loudly, and Lincoln immediately stood up to dismiss the class. My three groupmates (and myself) headed for the doors, and waved to one another, agreeing to have some vague ideas listed for tomorrow’s session. Unlike Asahi and Kyoyka, Kisasa turned in the same direction that I was heading, and, to my surprise, she had the same second-period class as I did – math.

‘Be honest. Are you doing well in this class?’

‘Hell no! I can’t understand half the shit that’s going on most of the time, so I’ve gotta catch up with the homework sets we get – I spend *hours* on this garbage every night! It’s so frustrating! Hmm… let me guess, you’re somehow doing good in this class?

‘Well, I wouldn’t say excellent, but pretty good…’

‘So you’re top five in the class?’

‘Well…’

I smirked.

‘That look tells me you’re top three. You’re so annoying!’

‘I didn’t say shit, you’re assuming things.’

Second period was normally pretty boring, especially without Asahi, but Kisasa kept irritating me throughout the class since she didn’t have anyone she was close with either in the class. By the end of class, I’d somehow been roped into tutoring her some of the core concepts that she’d been struggling with – normally, I’d be good at telling people to shove off, especially if I didn’t have the time or care to help them out, but for her, I guessed that I’d let it slide.

As we were entering the cafeteria, she looked at me curiously:

‘You going out for lunch? Or do you have one packed?’

‘I got one packed. Just some mazesoba, nothing fancy today at least.’

‘Damn, you can cook like that? I thought you told me you couldn’t cook at all!’

‘This isn’t my cooking, idiot. I got it last night, just had an extra serving which would be good for today.’

‘Oooooo is that Tesomaki’s Ramen?’

The voice came from behind me, so I cocked my head backwards, and, to my surprise, it was another one of x54’s executives.

‘Satou! How you been?’

‘Not bad at all, pretty exhausted though. Am I interrupting something Yo? Now a bad time?

‘Nah you’re good, you’re good. Kisasa, this is Satou Yoshihisa. Same age as us and he’s the other exec I was talkin about. Probably the most reliable guy we’ve got in our headranks and easily the most useful.’

‘Nice to meet you, I’ve heard about you, even though you probably haven’t about me. By the way, not Kisasa, I’m Yuina Sasaki.’

Satou looked in my direction.

‘You? At the convenience store? Really?’

‘Yeah. He wanted some smokes.’

‘Oh, I understand now. Tosh again?’

‘Yeah, and Asahi made me get em, even though he should’ve got ‘em. Pain in the ass that guy is, I tell ya.’

‘I honestly don’t know how Tsukkun and him are so close considering how much shit Tsukkun talks about him – I’ve heard nothing but bickering from him about Asahi!’

And, just on cue:

‘Someone mention my name?’

‘Oh great, your abhorrent ass is here.’

He looked and me and winked, before turning to Satou and Kisasa:

‘Oh, hey Yuina, funny catching you here with Sat too. Actually, perfect timing for ya Sat.’

Satou looked at him, before gesturing:

‘Ya got an update?’

‘Well, yeah. There’s some new info and some things we’ve gotta sort out. Was planning on skipping third and fourth.’

‘It’s that urgent that you’re skipping?’

‘Yeah. Sucks that it had to coincide with the one day that you actually showed up to class Tsu.’

‘Eh, I don’t care enough. I’ll get the material down for the last two classes, no sweat. Y’all wanna head out now?’

‘Yeah. Sat, got your car?’

‘Yeah, it’s parked outside, we can take it.’

Satou and Asahi walked on ahead, waving goodbye to Kisasa, as she looked up at me.

‘You’re leaving?’

‘Yeah. Honestly, I wasn’t planning to but it’s urgent. I’ve gotta know what’s going on. He looked pretty serious about it too’

‘Fair enough – let me get you what you need at least. Come to my locker.’

‘Oh, you brought them?’

‘I don’t go back on my promises. And you actually showed up.’

I turned and yelled over to Satou and Asahi.

‘I’ll meet y’all at the car! Just gotta get something!’

They both looked back at me deadpan, then looked at one another and started smirking. Even Satou could become a pain in the ass when he was with Asahi. Whatever.

Kisasa and I then went on towards her locker which was right outside of the cafeteria.

‘Why don’t you drive yourself? Pain in the ass to squeeze all of you, no?’

‘Well, I don’t drive here in the morning, for starters.’

‘What?! So mister bigshot is taking public transit to get to class? Or he’s walking?!’

‘I don’t walk, come on now. But yeah, I can’t bring my ride to the academy because of Sévére – he doesn’t want me to flaunt and bring unnecessary attention to myself, which I get.’

‘So then why not just buy a trashy car to use for class… surely you’ve got money for that?’

‘Well yeah, but I don’t want to drive a trashy car. Besides, the train ride isn’t even too bad. It’s not a major issue, especially since it isn’t very crowded.’

She opened her locker and quickly handed me the bag of smokes, which I put into my knapsack.

‘Tell me how much I owe ya, alright? I’ll make it up to ya for sure. Honestly, if ya want, I’ll just treat you to something, if that works for ya?’

She immediately blushed but looked up and smiled.

‘Wednesday night at Tesomaki’s?’

‘I’ll get a better place than Tesomaki’s, don’t worry. I’ll see ya tomorrow though!’

I waved at her as she smiled and closed her locker before I turned and bolted towards the exit. From behind me, I could hear her faintly saying something:

‘I’m looking forward to it! Stay safe tonight!’